European Commission launches public consultation on personal pensions

The European Commission launched a public consultation to ask individuals (citizens, pensioners, students) about their interest in, and their intention to save more for retirement through personal pensions. The consultation also seeks stakeholders’ views (companies, representative associations and governments) about possible EU action to offer personal pensions to individuals which are simple, affordable, transparent and works towards providing better returns.

Objective

The Commission aims at encouraging more savings into personal pensions to secure adequate revenues for retirement. This is essential as people are living longer, public finances are expected to remain under pressure and the ratio of retired people to workers is set to double in the next thirty five years.

As part of the Capital Markets Union (CMU) action plan, the Commission will assess the case for a policy framework to establish European personal pensions. More investment into personal pensions contributes to a stronger single market for capital through an increase in the funds available to finance the economy.

The objective of the public consultation is to identify potential obstacles to the uptake of personal pension products and to seek views on how to best address them. The consultation will also help the Commission analyse the case for an EU personal pension framework. To that end, individuals (citizens, pensioners, students) and other stakeholders (companies, representative associations, governments) are asked their opinion on possible EU action in order to offer personal pensions to individuals which are simple, affordable, transparent and provide better returns.

The public consultation builds on previous work carried out by the Commission and European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority (EIOPA) on personal pensions.

Target group

The first part (B1) is addressed to private individuals (personal pension holders and potential customers of such products).

The second part (B2) is addressed to consumer organisations representing existing or future consumers.

The third part (B3) is addressed to stakeholders who provide, would provide, or represent organisations that are or would be involved in providing personal pensions, public authorities regulating personal pensions, academics or other professionals involved with personal pensions in a professional capacity.

The Commission statement and related information can be found here. The deadline for comments is 31 October 2016.

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